When all four of them approached the cemetery, they saw Alba coming towards them. They hid in the first bush and fell silent. The inquisitor walked past them at a brisk pace and disappeared in a few minutes. The debate about whether he saw them or not was conducted for a dozen minutes, but they did not come to a consensus. Ofir and Guillotine were sure that he had not seen them, and Egon claimed that he had, just too busy to care.

There is not a soul in sight before and after the cemetery gates. They went ahead and tried to figure out where the old man named Matthew could theoretically be. There is nothing but solitude and stillness. This is exactly what each of them dreamed of in their souls while in Agernox, but here the feelings behaved in an illogical way, they wanted to talk about something or discuss, just not to be silent, but the brain could not find a topic for conversation, so the tension filled the air, alternately repeating "well, where can he be?"

"They buried Metyr here somewhere," Egon said.

"Shall we see him?"

"If there's time left. The cemetery is huge, most likely they buried him somewhere at the very edge in an unmarked grave and that's the end of it."

The tombstones, reaching their smoky-colored spires into the sky, covered the white plain. The snow haze hindered visibility, plunging the area into murk. In the distance, only the black, indistinct outlines of leafless and barren trees could be seen growing alone around the perimeter. And a poorly trodden road, that looked like it led to the end of the world. The horizon was pure white. Two hundred meters ahead, you could not see a thing. Snow crisped underfoot, and in some places, near a strip of dark coniferous forest, fallen branches cracked.

They turned onto some God-forsaken path. Ofir, lost in his thoughts, did not notice the destroyed column lying on the ground and knocked his foot against it. Then they climbed a small hill, went a little ahead and went down to the very bottom. A few crows flew in from the east. They sat down on the tombstones and began to watch the uninvited guests. The burials did not stop, there was no end to them, and the road became worse and worse. They had already decided to turn back, when Egon saw a black figure from the direction of the forest, ran after it, believing that it was Matthew. However, the figure disappeared like a mirage and was never seen again.

They turned west and walked, they lost track of time. After a while later, they came to a normal road, the end of which led to an abandoned temple. They went there and passed an unusual headless statue of a woman who leaned her elbow on an unnamed tombstone. There was less snow on the road, and more discolored fallen leaves underfoot.

Guillotine stopped and laughed.

"What's there?"

"A grave for a dog, look."

They saw a poodle named "Igor" in the picture. Instead of flowers, dog food.

"People are strange."

"The name is still so unusual."

"It would be better to call it Thomas."

"Look how they're taking care of it, huh? People are not watched as much as animals."

"They just have a cleaner soul. Let's go."

As they moved forward, the snow haze, meter by meter, revealed the outlines of an abandoned temple. The rectangular facade, made of white stone, lost its color, turned black, the plaster collapsed, there were no domes at all, instead there were two spires at the very top, or rather what was left of them - wooden beams overgrown with weeds. They walked around - no one. They listened - silence.

They entered through the service entrance on the side of the cross nave. Inside, there were old wooden benches covered with a thick layer of dust. Leaves, building materials, metal and wooden beams, and hardened cement were scattered on the floor. It was as if someone wanted to restore the temple with his own hands, but gave up even before starting. At the altar, a single painting has been preserved, dim and dark, almost impossible to see. If someone was here, it probably has been a little over a hundred years. They turned around the corridor into the bell tower and went up the spiral staircase and entered all the rooms (in which there was not even any furniture left), reached the clock chamber, where, of course, there were no bells, then reached the tented roof and looked from the height at the cemetery, stretching almost to the unseen horizon.

"And how do we find one person here? Is this even possible?"

Homer sat down on the cold stone floor to rest and leaned against the wall and dropped his head.

"We'll look for him," Egon said.

"Give me a break," Homer said abruptly, "I can't, I can't go any more."

They sat down with him. No one had food or water. The rumbling empty stomachs echoed throughout the building, their mouths were all dry. Egon looked out of the lancet windows, trying to find at least one living person, clenched his hands into fists, looked at Homer, held on, and looked back. In the east, the yellow luminary was rising up, the sky turned blue, the high-beam clouds lost their gloomy grayness and became whiter by the minute.

Ofir went up to Egon and took him aside, and said:

"We need to go back. Homer can't stand such loads. And we are all hungry and tired."

"Are you saying that your empty stomach is more important than your friend's life?"

"That's not what I meant."

"Ofir, you surprise me. If you were in Homer's place, would you like that instead of looking for the only person who can help you in this fucking place, we would go to the local canteen and start eating, drinking and chatting, huh?"

They heard the voice of Guillotine, which went down to the clock chamber. They went up to Homer, helped him up and saw Guillotine pointing his finger at some snow-covered voided field.

"Do you see it?” he said.

"The field?"

"The figure of a man, over there, he's kind of praying or something. I didn't notice him right away because of the snow fog."

Egon looked closer and saw a yellow spot that looked like a large fallen leaf from a distance, but nodded in agreement.

"Let's go," he said, and they all went.